Reverend John M. Garner, 18th Missouri Infantry

Reverend John M. Garner, 18th Missouri Infantry Chaplain, Grisly Account of the Carnage at Shiloh, 1862

Garner, John M. Chaplain of the 18th Missouri Infantry. ALS, 4pp, 8 x 12.5 in., "Near Pittsburg Landing / Hardin County Tennessee." April 4-5, 1862. Addressed to Garner's daughter, Ann.

Reverend John Garner enlisted on November 14, 1861 and was commissioned into the 18th Missouri Infantry. The regiment had been organized earlier in the month at Laclede, MO and was attached to the District of St. Louis, Department of Missouri until March of 1862. At that time, the 18th Missouri was assigned to the Army of Tennessee, 2nd Brigade, 6th Division and ordered to Pittsburg Landing, participating in the Battle of Shiloh, April 6-7, 1862. Here, Garner shares with his daughter some of the gruesome atrocities he witnessed during the Shiloh Campaign, in the days leading up to the momentous battle.

Garner tells Ann that he has spent a good portion of the last few days "riding around for observation and recreation,"Â which afforded him the opportunity to fully take in his surroundings and record what he saw in striking and, at times, graphic detail. Of Pittsburg Landing itself, he writes that it is "the busiest place I ever saw. There I saw ten steamers all loaded with with soldiers & military stores. On the bank there must have been at least a thousand Government teams loading in forage and commissary stores for the several Brigades encamped hereabouts. . . I saw a large poplar tree with a whole [sic] through it made by a cannon ball during the battle at this place on the first day of March." Ensuing relics of combat prove somewhat more grim: "A little way on. . .riding up the hollow I saw a mound of fresh earth approaching on which I saw the side of a dead mule's face with one eye peeping out. Thought I, 'Old fellow, you have seen service.' Still on my way up, I saw another similar mound, out of which stuck the hind leg of a horse with the shoe on. Said I, 'Well old fellow, there you are, you have seen your last battle.'"

Finally, he came upon "the corner of a soldier's blanket [and] the forehead and nose of a Secesh. . . between two logs with a beef skin and a very little dirt for [his] covering." Curious about this burial practice, he learns from a soldier involved in the conflict that "the rebels piled up six of their dead between those logs, then the beef hide and their blankets over them, and then fled, and then our men put the dirt on them." Garner observes that the rushed, haphazard nature of this interment bears unsavory consequences: "the top of the ground is covered with putrescent which flows from their decaying bodies, and the big green flies have deposited their eggs which soon become maggots. What an end this is!"

Garner continues reflectively, writing: "The most solemn thing I saw today was a man of our regiment buried without coffin or box. We rolled him up in his blanket and laid him down in the cold ground and covered him up. . . I prayed at the grave a delivered a short address. How hard to die from home and thus be disposed of."

As the letter draws to a close, Garner's words foreshadow the Battle of Shiloh that would take place on the following day: "The force is great on both sides, and if the rebels will stand lead, this battle will be a decisive one. . . The rebels are blazing away again on the South East of our division, in the direction of a little town on the Tennessee River. Boom! Boom! Boom!"

Garner survived the impending conflict and continued his service with the 18th Missouri until his resignation on April 14, 1865.
Condition Report: Creasing as expected, with areas of brown spots and stains, primarily concentrated at fold lines.